Archives for March 2015

This month we present a lightly edited excerpt from the Chess Evolution Newsletter #159. Top GM Secrets is released every Friday of the week. The newsletter contains twenty-plus pages of great chess material written by top grandmasters Arkadij Naiditsch and Csaba Balogh, along with theoretical articles by GM Alexander Khalifman, puzzles, endgames, and more.
A Happy End For Both Players
By Arkadij Naiditsch
Bartel,Mateusz (2631) - Nepomniachtchi,Ian (2714)
16th ch-EUR Indiv 2015 Jerusalem ISR (11.3), 08.03.2015
Sicilian Moscow Variation [B51]
We are in the last round of the ECC and both players are on a score of +4, which is enough to qualify for the World Cup, but knowing Bartel … [Read more...]

Queenfest IV: Breaking Free
By Jeff Coakley
Continuing from past columns, we present several new puzzles involving multiple queens. The task is to arrange the queens on the board to achieve certain goals.
For the first puzzle, an ‘edge square’ is defined as any square along the side of the board (a- or h-file, 1st or 8th rank).
Queenfest #11(four queens)
Place four queens on the board so that …
11a. all edge squares are attacked except the four corners.
11b. the most edge squares are attacked, without placing any queen on the edge.
11c. all squares on both long diagonals are attacked, without placing any queen on a long diagonal.
Earlier Queenfests can be found in … [Read more...]

Some Reflections From My Experiences
This is Chronicle no. 56. I initially thought this marked the five-year anniversary of the column, but that is not the case. Anyway, I had already made up my mind what to write for this occasion, so you get it a bit early.
During these (almost) five years I have tried many openings in more than 350 games and achieved plenty of experience. Therefore, I have assembled my top pieces of advice for you from this period:
1) Chess engines can be divided into two groups: fast and slower. In the first group we have Houdini, Fritz, and others. In the slower group we have Hiarcs, Rybka, and others. Engines in these groups function differently. Fast engines … [Read more...]

Chess, the New York Clipper,
and the Start of the American Civil War:
April 1861
By John S. Hilbert
With its April 13, 1861, issue the New York Clipper, a weekly sporting and theater magazine owned and edited by Frank Queen, announced the close of its eighth year. Begun in 1853 as a four page spread devoted to a variety of entertainment, the Clipper was not modest. Queen's editorial that week prided itself on denouncing the "sport" of dog fighting, for instance, because it had become "but a pretext for the basest swindling, for law breaking; for the grossest demoralization of the man and cruelty to the brute." The Clipper would no longer report the disgraceful doings of men who set … [Read more...]

Let's Get Critical
By Bruce Pandolfini
Some say "key squares," others say "critical squares." You say "to-may-toe," I say "to-mah-toe," let's call the whole thing off. If we do, I have a feeling it won't impact George and Ira Gershwin very much, but it could give me an out. That way, I might be able to avoid doing this month's column. Only kidding.
Okay, now that we've started with a bit of humor, we can actually talk about the ten examples that follow. They all reflect simple positions in which the black king has to get to a critical square in order to force a win. As with all critical square situations, the defending king in each of these positions doesn't have to occupy a critical … [Read more...]

Inside Chess, 1992/9
Anatomy of a Disaster
By Yasser Seirawan
Since winning the US Championship, Gata Kamsky's chess career seems to be heading straight up. I was anxious to cross swords with him at Belgrade. In this, Anatomy of a Disaster Part II, you'll see that when it rains, it pours.
Seirawan,Yasser (2615) - Kamsky,Gata (2595)
Belgrade Investbank, 1991
Symmetrical English [A34]
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.dxc3 Qxd1+ 7.Kxd1 Bg4?
A bad mistake. Since Black doesn't want to trade this Bishop, it's better left at home. On g4 it's a target.
8.Kc2 Nc6 9.Be3 e6 10.Bb5
Surprisingly, the position is already a technical win. Since a doubling of … [Read more...]

Rook and Knight Pairs
By Jeff Coakley
This column presents seven puzzles of various types, all involving rooks and knights. The grand finale is a very challenging “eight pair loop”.
1. Triple Loyd 43
Place the black king on the board so that:
A. Black is in checkmate.
B. Black is in stalemate.
C. White has mate in one.
2. Inverted Loyd 16
Add two white rooks
and two white knights
so that White has mate in one.
3. Inverted Loyd 17
Add two white rooks
and two white knights
so that White has mate in one.
4. Construction Task 08
Construct a position with a white king,
two rooks, and two knights against a
lone black king so that White has the
most … [Read more...]

Adjourned Games
By Geurt Gijssen
In the FIDE Handbook it is written in the Rating Regulation:
For a game to be rated, each player must have the following minimum periods in which to complete all the moves, assuming the game lasts 60 moves.
Where at least one of the players in the tournament has a rating 2200 or higher, each player must have a minimum of 120 minutes.
Where at least one of the players in the tournament has a rating 1600 or higher, each player must have a minimum of 90 minutes.
Where all the players in the tournament are rated below 1600, each player must have a minimum of 60 minutes.
Based on the first sentence of this Article, it is logical to assume that adjourned … [Read more...]

More on Homeworks
By Dan Heisman
Quote of the Month: “Whenever you think you have lost the meaning of life, look around you for those in need of your help and you shall find it.”
Many years ago I wrote a Novice Nook The Four Homeworks which described four different chess “tasks” a student could do in-between lessons:
Do puzzles appropriate to their level and needs – For players under 1800 or so, this should start with repetitious easy tactics, like learning the multiplication tables. But this category includes all kinds of puzzles, such as harder tactical puzzles, positional, endgame, and even board vision puzzles like Jeff Coakley’s Switcheroos and Double Whammies, as found in … [Read more...]

Stalemate
By Karsten Müller
At first it seems to be paradox that a player, who can not move anymore is rewarded with half a point. Indeed there are many other games, where this leads to a loss like Nin Men's Morris or Checkers. But in chess it makes sense as it adds another valuable element to the game. Many defensive techniques are based on this motif and the attacker must be careful to the end:
163.01 Bodnaruk,A (2411) - Girya,O (2457)
ch-RUS Superfinal w 2014 Kazan RUS (9.2), 07.12.2014
White is winning, but it is not easy.
59.Kd6
Of course neither 59.Kc6? c3 60.Bxc3 stalemate; nor 59.Kxc4?? stalemate.
59...Kb5 60.Kc7 Ka4
After 60...c3 61.Bxc3 Ka4 62.Kb7 Kb5, White … [Read more...]

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